3 decades of pizza, charitable giving for Domino's Hockert-Lotz

NEW BEDFORD — It's a staple of doing business in the 21st century — get involved in the community and the investment will reward you. But Nelson Hockert-Lotz, longtime Domino's Pizza man and a time-tested backer of good causes, said for him it's about "the higher calling of the pizza guy."

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By SIMÓN RIOS

southcoasttoday.com

By SIMÓN RIOS

Posted May. 23, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By SIMÓN RIOS
Posted May. 23, 2014 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

NEW BEDFORD — It's a staple of doing business in the 21st century — get involved in the community and the investment will reward you. But Nelson Hockert-Lotz, longtime Domino's Pizza man and a time-tested backer of good causes, said for him it's about "the higher calling of the pizza guy."

"When we opened our first store in New Bedford, our first year, we saw the Neediest Families Fund come along," said Hockert-Lotz.

That was 30 years ago, and freshly in business, he said he didn't have any money. But just before Christmas he gave half the money from a day's pizza sales — more than $1,000 — to the fund.

"I've always made sure that the business provides sufficiently for me and my family, but I've never had huge aspirations for being a great businessman," he said.

"It's kind of what my mother passed along."

Born in Ohio and raised in Burlington, Vermont, Hockert-Lotz, 56, tips his hat to his mother for introducing him to social justice; she was a community organizer active with the NAACP and the League of Women Voters.

At the height of the business Hockert-Lotz and his brother owned seven franchises in SouthCoast. Now on his own, his Kempton Street and Rockdale Avenue stores are the pillars of a small pizza empire known as much for its philanthropy as its pies.

"A lot of the things we do are not just about business," he said. "There are a lot of ways that building community is just plain great fun. It's the best feeling that you can have as a human being."

There's little doubt that giving can boost the bottom line. A 2013 study by the consulting firm Clarity suggested that 30 percent of consumers said they plan to spend more on socially responsible companies the following year. On top of that, 83 percent of Americans wished brands would support causes and 41 percent said they buy products because they're associated with a cause.

Hockert-Lotz acknowledges the connection but insists that's not his motive.

"If we support your softball team or we get involved with your kids at school, are you more likely to order pizza from Domino's because of that? I think that our success says probably so."

However you cut it, Hockert-Lotz has been a successful Domino's franchisee.

"His two stores were up over 13 percent in sales and he celebrated his 20th consecutive record year in sales," said Domino's CEO J. Patrick Doyle in an internal letter.

Debra Gula has worked for Hockert-Lotz for 19 years. She's one of the faces of the business, helping to coordinate the nearly constant stream of pizza donations.

"It's really important to give back to the people that are in your life, but also in the community," Gula said.

"Where you live, you also need to take care of the community."

The company also does well with its four-deep fleet of 45-mile-per-gallon hybrid cars, the faithful steeds of Hockert-Lotz' delivery drivers. For him, that means doing right by the planet while cutting down on fuel costs.

"It is a wonderful thing when your values align with the bottom line," he said.

In all, he said he gives away nearly 1,000 pizzas a year, in events ranging from Pizza for a Pint to the Household Hazardous Waste Recycling Day, supporting organizations from the Greater New Bedford Track Club to Relay for Life.

Asked how many pizzas he sells in a year, Hockert-Lotz grinned but wouldn't put a firm number on it. He said it amounts to thousands a week among the city's three Domino's locations, one of which he sold in the early 1990s.